What happened
On his beat, Kettle saw a powerful light he judged to be about 1,200 ft up, attached to what the press called a strange cigar-shaped craft passing over the city. Two people in March, about 15 miles away, reported something similar. This was the first report of the 1909 British "scareship" panic, which the Daily Mail and others tied to fears of German Zeppelins. A representative of Kettle's own force told the Peterborough Express that a large kite had been flying over the Cobden Street area for days before.